First-Year Admission - Additional Considerations

Several other items are taken into consideration when making your admissions decision in an effort to get to know you on a personal level. These items include your required essay, your short answer question, involvement and letter of recommendation.

Required personal essay and short answer question

UNCW requires both a personal essay and a short answer question. Since UNCW does not offer personal interviews, approach your essay like a personal interview. Don't waste your time with demographic information (your name, age, hometown, high school, etc.), as it is already included on your application for admission. Do tell us everything we need to know about you to fully-understand your academic potential, work ethic, distinguishing characteristics, etc.

PROOFREAD your essay and the short answer. While we are not anticipating a Pulitzer Prize-winning essay, we are expecting a well thought out college essay. It is never a bad idea to have a parent or educator proofread your essay as well.

In addition to reviewing your short answer writing for admission purposes, we also want to see who has composed the best "Why UNCW" response to this question. Each year the Office of Admissions will select some of the most well written answers and enter them in the running for a UNCW book scholarship. The amount of the book scholarship will be determined at the time of the award.

Involvement

From clubs and organizations to varsity or junior varsity athletics and part-time or full-time jobs to volunteer and community service activities, paint a picture of yourself beyond the classroom. This is your space on the application to brag about yourself, so tell us your most impressive achievements first (leadership positions, varsity letters, awards, etc.) and end your list with the clubs and organizations you have recently joined or are merely a member of. If you run out of room on the application, send us a resume.

Letter of Recommendation

Your required letter of recommendation must come from a core academic teacher (English, foreign language, math, science, or social studies) or your guidance counselor. This recommendation should not merely recap your GPA and class rank, but should address your preparedness for a rigorous collegiate environment, your academic integrity and social character. Ultimately, your recommendation is an expert review of your qualifications to join our freshman class.

Ask someone to not only write you a recommendation, but also to write you a good recommendation. Often times the best person to write this recommendation is an individual who has experienced first-hand your work ethic and determination in the classroom and has observed or knows of your activities outside of the classroom.

A second letter of recommendation will be considered, if provided, but is not required. Recommendations not coming from a core academic teacher or guidance counselor will not fulfill this admission requirement.

Home School Students

For the required recommendation letter, students are encouraged to submit one from an instructor other than the parent. This is usually possible since most home-schooled students have taken or are taking a dual-enrolled course at a local college. If that is not the case, the student should submit one from an employer or former employer. For further suggestions, please contact the Admissions office.

Important Note to Residents Outside North Carolina

Admission of applicants residing outside the State of North Carolina to an online degree, certificate program or individual online course offered by UNCW, is dependent on UNCW‘s ability to secure authorization from the applicant's state of residence, if such authorization is required. Due to evolving changes in higher education regulations, at this time, UNCW is unable to serve all of the students that are interested in our courses or programs. For the most current list of states and statuses, visit this link: http://www.uncw.edu/dl/StateAuthorizationsDistanceLearningUNCW.html. For questions specific to the state authorization process, call 910.962.2807 or email stateauthorization@uncw.edu.